More on the solitary life

By Alyson Stanfield on August 5, 2008

Last week’s Deep Thought about committing to a life of solitary confinement if you want to be a successful artist garnered some terrific responses. While I said in the post that I was of two minds on the subject, I’ve come to realize there is only one true mind.Everyone is different. Every artist’s path has been different and will continue to be different. In fact, I have a whole chapter about this in I’d Rather Be in the Studio! Only you can define success. And only you can decide how you’ll attain it.

The only thing that matters is that you are true to yourself. You must know what makes you tick. You have to know that if you’re not creating art in a way that is satisfying (for you only!), something has to change. For some, this might mean more solitude, but for others, it might mean throwing a party or scheduling a lot of lunch appointments. It’s all part of that balancing act.

2 comments to More on the solitary life

Alyson, Thank you for your thoughts and words of wisdom. I appreciate reading your entries and listening to your podcasts. You really are right about this. I also think that an artist’s mindset can vary from day-to-day. One day, we may want to have others around us. And the next, we want to be alone and just create. I really believe that we need to be in tune with ourselves in order to pursue a lifestyle that cultures creativity.

Just goes to show how good your book is. Seriously — one of the ways I evaluate books for artists is to see if they insist that all artists need to behave a certain way. If so, I toss the book immediately.